US stock markets continued to decline on Thursday. The Dow, calculated at the end of trading in New York, recorded a value of 44,565.07 points, a 0.92% increase compared to the previous trading day.
Only minutes earlier, the broader S&P 500 had reached around 6,115 points, a 0.5% gain, and the technology stock market, Nasdaq, calculated the Nasdaq 100 at around 21,900 points, a 0.2% gain.
“The big Wall Street banks, which have presented their results at the start of the reporting season, have been able to report two-digit percentage growth in investment banking” said market analyst Konstantin Oldenburger of CMC Markets, explaining the reasons for the good investor sentiment. “JP Morgan, the largest bank in the country by assets, reported a record annual profit, while Goldman Sachs was able to more than double its profit per share.”
“Then came good numbers from Taiwan Semiconductor, the chip giant that supplies, among others, to Nvidia and reported a 57% increase in profit in the fourth quarter. This fuels the hope that the enormous investments in AI projects will continue. If the ‘Glorious Seven’ can again meet or even exceed the expectations of Wall Street, this rally may be at the beginning rather than the end” the expert predicted.
The European common currency was a bit stronger on Thursday evening: one euro cost 1.0418 US dollars, and one dollar was worth 0.9599 euros.
The gold price slipped slightly, with 2,754 US dollars paid for one fine ounce (-0.1%) at the end of the day, equivalent to a price of 84.99 euros per gram.
Meanwhile, the oil price fell significantly: a barrel of North Sea Brent cost around 22:00 German time on Thursday evening, 77.88 US dollars, which was 112 cents or 1.4% less than at the close of the previous trading day.